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The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program has been publishing hate crimes, including anti-Muslim hate crimes, since 1995. But this program is voluntary, so much of the data is underreported and incomplete.

Anti-Muslim hate crime numbers have yet to go down to pre-9/11 levels.

Hate crimes against Muslims jumped considerably in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001. There were 33 incidents the year before the attacks, and by the end of 2001, the number soared to 546. But levels of offenses in the U.S. — though they have decreased significantly since 2001 — have not gone down to pre-9/11 numbers. Some of the highest levels of reported hate crimes against Muslims after 2001 took place during election years, particularly in 2004, 2006 and 2010.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) collects and publishes hate crime data submitted voluntarily by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies. Hate crime data collecting and reporting, according to FBI statistician Dr. Jim Noonan, is done by a group of about 45 people. Hate crime data from 1995 to 2012 is available online.

One of the biggest hindrances to a complete set of recorded data is the fact that this program is voluntary. Law enforcement agencies don’t have to submit their hate crime data to the FBI, though Noonan said the program is working to increase participation in the hate crime program. Subject matter experts and a training staff travel the country to conduct training sessions and encourage non-participating agencies to consider participating. Their most recent training was in the southern district of Florida.

“It becomes kind of a political issue. Nobody wants to admit they have hate crimes in their area,” he said, “but we need to get reporting up.”

“Our data probably looks kind of underrated or silly,” said Noonan. “For example, Alabama had no hate crimes in 2001 -- I mean, really? Something like that, we would hope people would call attention to.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a well-known civil rights organization based in Alabama, has been tracking hate crimes covered by the media from 2003 to present time. The map above shows where coverage of anti-Muslim hate crimes was published, as well as a description of each crime. Though the map includes coverage from 2003 to 2013, it has a total of less than 200 data points, which is much less than all the FBI-reported hate crimes for just 2001. This gives a sense of the proportion of anti-Muslim hate crimes coverage in American media versus levels of reported anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Despite the increase in agencies, like the SPLC and CAIR, tracking hate crimes and Islamophobic incidents, it is very difficult to keep a full record anti-Muslim crimes and trends in the U.S. in order to get a complete picture of the overall bias.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Islam For Reporters tracks data on Islamophobic incidents in the U.S. and provides tools for reporters covering Islam-related issues or Muslim American communities. IFR began as the Master's project of Nausheen Husain at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.